The situation of the Buckhaven and Methil Miners Brass Band, of Fife, which has appealed for new members to "keep alive the tradition", mirrors the storyline in the film Brassed Off - in which McGregor plays a bandsman trying to save a Yorkshire colliery band after the pit closes.

Jim Hyslop, chairman of the band, said McGregor would be sympathetic to their plight as he attended nearby Kirkcaldy College on his road to Hollywood stardom and knew the former pit lands in Fife well.

In Brassed Off, one of McGregor's first movies, the Grimley Colliery band survived despite the widespread closure of pits during the 1980s, and the band at Grimethorpe, which inspired the film, is still flourishing.

Mr Hyslop said his band was established in 1905, but the increased cost of travel and musical instruments, as well as the death of the mining communities, had forced it to appeal for new members.

Meanwhile, Billy Connolly, 58, is taking the role of a Highland laird seriously at his Candacraig House home in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, presenting the Billy Connolly Piping Trophy for the most points in the open piping section at the Lonach Games in August.